Krista Henry, Staff Reporter
Bob Marley. - Contributed
Theft at the Little Theatre has disrupted a tribute being made to the legendary King of reggae Bob Marley. Yesterday the
costumes designed by Catch A Fire's Cedella Marley for the dance Ode were stolen from the Little Theatre.
Bridget Spalding, secretary and treasurer of the NDTC, comments "at the back of the studio, the thieves took out the louvres of the window and took nearly all the costumes for the performance entitled the Ode. The designs were from Catch A Fire by Cedella Marley. I don't think the police have even arrived as yet".
The choreographer for the piece Clive Thompson confirmed stating, "we're all in shock. The costumes were taken from the NDTC studio, which is right next to the Little Theatre. The thieves reached through the
windows and took a large amount of the costumes from Ode and some from another performance. We're in a process of contacting Cedella, to see whether and how soon she can provide the replacements".
Ode will go on
He continues, "the NDTC was set to open Ode for this Saturday. The NDTC's shows will still go on. maybe Ode will not go this week but it will go on. It is depressing because it's Cedella's costumes and maybe because of this the criminals think it will be of market value. It was special. The songs for the performance were taken from Bob Marley and then to have the costumes designed by his daughter".
Rex Nettleford, the NDTC's artistic director, was also very distressed about the robbery, citing the significance of the costumes, having been designed by Bob Marley's own daughter. He says "the costumes for Ode choreographed by Clive Thompson were stolen. The dance was in tribute of Bob Marley for his
60th birthday. The costumes were designed by his daughter Cedella Marley, they could easily be something you would see on the streets, meaning that they are young and hip".
He elaborates "my feeling is that someone was stalking the place and then they came after them. The dance was set for this weekend. I don't think we could replace them. We have been doing our dance season for 40 years. It was a quite a thing to have his daughter design all the costumes. It's almost like a
heirloom. I would like the public to know that the artistic director is pleading for the costumes to be returned".
At the time that The Gleaner team contacted Catch A fire, Cedella Marley was unaware of the robbery. A representative of Cedella Marley stated that Ms. Marley thought the incident was "very unfortunate".
